No big deal if you run over, right?

That’s just more value the audience will get for the same fee.

Wrong. Think again.

Running overtime is a big rookie mistake.

Let’s say the conference you’re speaking at hired a $100,000 celebrity keynote speaker to close the event…

You’ll be speaking right before them.

If you run 15 minutes over, that’s 15 minutes of time stolen from the closing speaker.

In this case, that’s $25,000 they got paid while the audience listened to you.

Now how mch value did they get from your generous overtime performance?

That speaker now has to worry about shortening their presentation and still getting their point across.

They’ll have to speed up a bit and probably skip a story or two.

And hopefully—hopefully—they’re as professional at speaking as they are popular and successful. Many celebrity speakers aren’t.

When it comes to making things happen on time, event organizers have enough to worry about without speakers playing fast and loose with the performance schedule.

Start on-time.

Finish on-time.

Running over is a big rookie mistake.